7. Assume that you are on a project to build a new Web site for a midsize company. The firm sells materials to home builders—usually contractors, but some individual sales as well. The company wants to take orders over the Web and enable customers to track the status of current orders. Contractors also want the ability to look at old orders when placing new ones. For example, if they build the same style of house twice, they will need approximately the same materials. The manufacturer is not completely certain on many of the details yet, and you will have to interview customers to get additional details and feedback. Set up a schedule for developing this system using the SDLC approach. Then, identify ways that RAD might be used to reduce the overall development time.
Feasibility and costing: A week—mostly to get firmer definitions and goals.
Systems Analysis: 2 months—mostly interviews. Trying to contact everyone is going to be challenging.
Systems Design: 2-6 months—most of the Web site will have to be prototyped and tested with the customers and that will take time.
Implementation: 1-2 months—assuming the site is hosted by a third-party or that the Internet connections already exist. Testing (especially for performance) and data transfer will take the most time.
RAD ideas: Analysis and Design will have to overlap because the main pages really need to be prototyped since no one really knows what they want. Some implementation steps might be started early—particularly finding a hosting site and transferring data.